Govt to allocate coal mine to UP for power plant: Goyal

The Centre will allocate a coal mine with 400 million tonne capacity for a plant in Uttar Pradesh by February and sanction Rs 500 crore to the state within a month to upgrade the distribution network, Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said today.
"The Centre will allocate to UP government by February coal block having a capacity of 300-400 million tonnes. The work in a plant...Near Allahabad was to begin from past many years. A private company was not able to start it. The state government has decided that it will set up the plant," Goyal told media person after UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav called on him.

The Centre has decided that the coal linkage for that plant will be transfered to state government, Goyal said.
He added that the Centre will sanction Rs 500 crore from the power system development fund to the UP government within a month to upgrade the distribution network.
The state government, he said, has decided to purchase 4,000 mw additional power for which it will undertake bidding for long-term purchase.
"Several problems are being faced in that... In the bidding how much minimum bids can be done together. We have fully relaxed it today and this will be implemented in the entire country...The state government can fix the bidding quantity according to its requirement," the minister said.